UTTERLY BUTTERLY SOCIAL

A look at how social media has impacted the way Amul’s creative factory daCunha
Communications functions... By Ashwini Gangal
Some recent
ads of 2015
1,500
13,041
Re-tweets
Likes
26,025
Likes
621
Re-tweets
14,238
L
ong before Twitter imposed
its 140 character-limit on
the world, Amul’s creative
custodians – boss man Rahul
daCunha, writer Manish Jhaveri,
and cartoonist Jayant Rane – have
been playing by similar rules. As
daCunha puts it, “If it can’t be said
in four words, it can’t be said.” He
is, of course, referring to the newsbased ads or “topicals” that they
release, across 100 outdoor locations,
nationwide; around six to seven such
ads are released each week. The
rule, however, stays the same across
outdoor and digital media; the timestrapped consumer is either driving
past or scrolling down.
A look at how social media has
changed things for this team of three,
that has been crafting Amul’s topicals
for the past two decades.
But First, Some
Perspective
etween 1966 (which is when
the first Amul billboard was
displayed) and 1980, daCunha
B
Likes
Communications released one ad
every three to four weeks. During the
1980s to early 2000s, the frequency
rose to one every fortnight. Today,
with digital platforms – like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
Amul’s website (which was launched
in 1995) – in the media mix, the team
releases a topical a day. Effectively,
daChunha, Jhaveri and Rane are
back to square one each morning,
by design.
Rane sighs, “Social media matlab
kaam badh gaya.” On an average,
he sketches and paints one static
poster a day. On a particularly busy
day, the number goes up to three.
“Sometimes, as I sit and sketch, the
team is on standby, just waiting to
upload the creative online. Social
media has made my deadlines very
tight,” he says. Rane, like Jhaveri,
has been with the agency for over
20 years, initially as a full-timer and
later, as a freelance hand.
Besides outdoor and online, the
topicals are also published across
33 newspapers (with a combined
circulation of 30 million copies).
One new topical is released in print,
every week. A few TV channels also
air these images as ten second-long
‘films’.
Interestingly, Amul sees the
creatives only after they have been
published. “Amul, as a client, does
not advise the agency on the creative
part of the topical ad campaign,”
says Jayen Mehta, general manager,
planning and marketing, Gujarat
Cooperative
Milk
Marketing
Federation (GCMMF), the marketer
of Amul butter.
Mehta adds, “The agency has a
‘free hand’ as far as deciding the
idea, copy and illustration goes.
We see the creative only after it is
released by the agency. Amul must
be the only client in the world that
has given so much creative freedom
to its advertising agency.” Can’t
argue with that.
Amul spends less than one per
cent of its total sales turnover on
advertising. This works out to around
`200 crore, annually.
Some recent Amul ads that
fetched a lot of traction on
social media
Social Themes
esides increasing their daily
workload, social media has
impacted the way the trio works
in many other ways. Do they craft
their lines or draw their cartoons any
differently for digital media? No.
“What has changed is the choice
of topic. In the era of hoardings, I
wouldn’t have done an ad on the
Syria issue, Charlie Hebdo or the
Peshawar killings,” admits daCunha.
But he went ahead and released
online ads on all three topics because
“they’re so social media-worthy,” or
‘Facebook-friendly’ if you will.
B
The sketch on Talvar: Work in progress
From Social Listening,
To Soothsaying
large part of daCunha’s job
is catching a trend while it’s
gaining momentum and predicting
for how long it will stay of interest.
Sometimes, a topic is yet to reach its
proverbial high point, in which case
he waits till it moves from ‘Page 4’ to
‘Page 1’ before releasing an ad on it.
Conversely, if an issue has lived its
course, he avoids using it.
Social media helps him gauge
the trendiness of a piece of news
and answer questions like: Is
there outrage?, Is there collective
amusement?, Is there concern?, Is
there mass helplessness?, Is there
hate-mongering?
“For me, Twitter and Facebook are
powerful granaries of information;
they give me a sense of what is
meaningful and relevant to people.
Newspapers give me the news item,
but Facebook and Twitter give me
the point of view.”
A
Cartoonist Jayant Rane, doing
what he does best
Memory Lane
become very popular online.
T
he original Amul moppet was sketched by cartoonist Eustace Fernandes.
Before Rahul daCunha started writing the ads for Amul in 1993, his father
Sylvester daCunha handled the account. The Amul girl was born in 1965 and the
first Amul billboard was released in 1966. Sylvester created the Amul girl to rival Polson’s butter girl. The mascot
was first used in outdoor ads that were put up on a few lampposts in Mumbai.
Consumers took to her instantly. At a time when there was no TV and every brand
was going the print, cinema or radio way, Amul decided to make outdoor its lead
medium of communication. Today, the campaign is over 50 years old.
Two years back, Toonz Animation gave the Amul girl a 3D form. She now looks
like a regular, well-rounded cartoon character. Through his news-based ads,
Rahul daCunha targets the 18 to 35 year-old Indian.
Hit Online; Try Offline
ollowing which, by the way,
daCunha decided to make an
offline billboard out of it! Every
single topical goes to outdoor sites
in Mumbai and Gujarat, in any case.
“But, after seeing the kind of response
this ad got online, I changed my mind
and decided to release it offline in
Bangalore as well, since he plays for
the team there. I realised that it also
ought to be released in the Eastern
region and in other English-speaking
F
Jhaveri, the writer, says, “Usually,
we go with what people are talking
about on the web. If it’s being
discussed, we go ahead and do a
hoarding on it. Then suddenly there’s
a spike in the discussion around
it…” He’s quick to add, however,
“We don’t let Twitter trends be the
deciding factor. If something’s not
‘fashionable’ enough, and is not
trending on Twitter, but we feel it
is relevant, we’ll go ahead and do it.”
fotocorp
Utterly Butterly Social
“International news doesn’t have
much traction on a hoarding in
India,” he says. His ads on these topics
find an audience online. Online, the
topics he bases his creatives on are
“younger” or more in sync with
popular culture. “Social is where we
tackle issues that we wouldn’t have
done hoardings on a few years back.
We’ve gone from an ad a week to an
ad a day because there are so many
issues that are not relevant to the
whole country, but are nevertheless
very relevant on social media,” he
adds.
During the pre-digital, so-called
bohemian days, one big event affected
the entire nation and stayed relevant
for weeks. But today, the rules have
changed. Consumer interest has
become more verticalised. Unlike
earlier, where news about politics was
the one thing that interested one and
all, today, different segments of the
population are moved by different
things. “There’s very little that’s of
‘national importance’ anymore,” he
says.
As compared to his father Sylvester
daCunha’s style, which was famously
‘gentle’, daCunha junior prefers to
take risks with edgier copy. “The one
contribution I have made is to not sit
on the fence,” he says.
Instant Feedback
n social, daCunha and team get
instant feedback for their work,
by way of likes, re-tweets, comments
and shares. During the IPL, a few
seasons back, they ran a creative
that bore an image of the Amul girl
in a cheerleader’s outfit. “Twitter
practically came down on me saying,
‘How dare you…’” he recalls. Such
is the mass ownership his adorable
mascot inspires.
Amul regularly tests its ads online
to better understand public reaction.
While, on an average, most of the
ads fetch between 15 to 20 lakh
views, the recent one about Google’s
Sundar Pichai got over 81 lakh views.
“Analysing the online reach of our
ads helps us understand which topics
are of interest to people and which
aren’t,” daCunha states.
O
From left: Jayant Rane, Rahul daCunha and Manish Jhaveri:
The Creative Trio at daCunha Communications
Politics – Not So Hot,
Anymore
t’s through online metrics that
he knows how little traction ads
around Indian politics get nowadays.
Online, his ad on Queen Elizabeth
was more popular than the one on
the Bihar election. Says daCunha,
“As a subject, Indian politics – the
I
Rane puts finishing touches on
a recent poster
fotocorp
AMUL
classic lampooning zone – is just
nose-diving. People are tired of it.
Sure, politicians are still funny but
issues like scams and scandals... not
so funny anymore.”
Interestingly, he spots a sudden
spike in interest around Indian
business, of late. “So, this system
gives us insight into what the skew
is towards. I’m obsessed with social
media because I have to have my
ear to the ground and be mindful
of which direction public interest is
going in.”
Besides the subject, daCunha also
takes daily decisions pertaining to
the language of the copy. “Should
it be English? Hindi? ‘Hinglish’?
That’s a big decision, as is zeroing
in on the outdoor site,” daCunha
shares, referring to the geographical
location of the billboards. “A lot of
people in smaller towns, say, Patna,
are not necessarily looking at the ads
on social. They may not log on to
the net that often. So, I may write
a Bihari hoarding just for that area.
Like, I may do a Jayalalitha-specific
one only for Tamil Nadu.”
Speaking of language, English
copy, he tells us, is very well-received
online. Which is why, his team has
started releasing ‘English-heavy’ ads
on social, more frequently than it
used to. For example, his recent ad
that read ‘Give the DeVilliers his
due – from one AB to another’ that
followed cricketer AB de Villiers’
recent on-field performance is “quite
a sophisticated English line,” but has
markets,” he shares, telling us how
online traction helps him make
offline media planning decisions.
For daCunha, knowledge regarding
the virtual eyeballs an ad draws is
“like a polestar, when it comes to
making decisions about running it on
outdoor media.”
Brand Speak
mul’s Mehta, says, “Topicality
is key to the relevance of our
campaigns. With social media, it is
now easier to be ‘on time’. Feedback
is instant; no other medium is as
responsive.”
But, the response isn’t always
positive. Recently, a long-format
digital ad film – sixth in the brand’s
‘Har Ghar Amul Ghar’ series
– received flak because people
construed it as sexist. Mehta says,
“Yes, this was unexpected feedback.
Communication is all about
information exchange. Receiving
feedback is integral to the process.”
For its ad films, daCunha
Communications works with four
production houses. Every month
and a half, they brainstorm on a
script and ready a film. Many of the
longer ones are for exclusive digital
consumption.
While Amul’s topicals will never
be exclusive to the digital medium,
it’s safe to say that India’s most
consistent news-based campaign is
now as much a digital one as it is an
outdoor one. n
A
ashwini.gangal@afaqs.com